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„Demand for Loans Will Grow“
In an interview with „Wirtschaftsblatt“, Vice-President of EIB (European Investment Bank) Wilhelm Molterer indicates that banks may not be prepared for an increasing demand for loans.
September 6, 2013
Hungary: New Threats for Foreign Banks
Hungary´s government is determined to convert foreign exchange loans at the expense of banks again.
September 6, 2013
Another Austerity Package in Austria?
Due to the dismal situation of nationalized banks, the economist Christian Keuschnigg anticipates another austerity package after the election at the end of September.
September 6, 2013
Austrian Banks Register Growing NPL
The advisory group pwc has issued a new report on the asset quality of Austrian banks. In terms of asset quality, Hungary and Romania are performing worst.
September 5, 2013
Hungarian Government Wants Further FX Debt Reliefs
The government has talks with the Hungarian banking association. In order to de-burden indebted Hungarian households, Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to reach a debt relief plan.
September 4, 2013
EU Approves Hypo Group´s Restructuring Plan
The re-privatization of the Austrian publicly held banking group was approved by the Commission. According to the Commission´s report, Hypo Group´s expansion strategy was highly dangerous.
September 2, 2013
Austrian Banking Sector Burdened Heavily With NPL
In total, non-performing loans held by Austrian banks come at € 150bn. This corresponds to 48% of Austria´s GDP.
September 2, 2013
Hypo Group Considers IPO
The Austrian nationalized bank takes an IPO of its Eastern subsidiaries into account.
August 31, 2013
Czech Republic: SME Suffer from Credit Crunch
The recession in the Czech Republic is mainly due to the restrictive lending policy of the domestic banking sector.
August 24, 2013
RBI´s CEO Sevelda: Drastic Losses in Hungary
Next week, Vienna-listed RBI (Raiffeisen Bank International) will present the results for the first half year of 2013. RBI will put effort into selective growth strategies.
August 17, 2013
Credit Crunch in CESEE?
The capital outflow in the CESEE region accelerates. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) fears negative consequences for the real economy.
August 7, 2013
UniCredit to Focus on Poland, Turkey and Russia
UniCredit´s CEO pursues a selective growth strategy. The Austrian subsidiary recorded losses in the retail segment.
August 6, 2013
Turkey: Banking Sector Improves Profitability
In the first six months of 2013, net income of Turkey´s banking sector was up by 20%.
August 6, 2013
RBI Considers Withdrawing from Hungary
The Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International wants to focus on other markets. Hungary and Slovenia are shrinking markets, CEO Karl Sevelda says.
August 6, 2013
Arab Partner for RBI?
Karl Sevelda, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International, indicated that an Arab investor may become a shareholder.
August 5, 2013
Croatia: Foreign Currency Loans No Danger for Banks
About 8% of the loan portfolio in Croatia consists of Swiss franc loans. Banks would be able to bear losses.
August 5, 2013
Slovenian Banking Sector: Equity Capital Base Improves
The banking system’s overall capital adequacy improved last year to 11.9% on average. The banks primarily focused on improving their core Tier 1 capital ratio, which was up 1.1 percentage points to stand at 10%.
August 3, 2013
Slovenian Real Estate Sector Shrinks
The building activity in Slovenia slackens. Moreover, transactions remain weak and new housing loans have reached a record low. A further decrease in real estate prices is rather likely.
August 3, 2013
Slovenia: Household Income Shrinks
For the first time since its independence, Slovenia´s households record a decrease in disposable income.
August 2, 2013
Slovenian Banking Sector Still Under Enormous Pressure
Besides the decreasing negative net income and the high impairment losses, Slovenia´s banks register a decreasing lending activity. Deposits are going down as well.
August 2, 2013
Serbia: Capital Outflow Decelerates
At least, the pace and Volume of Capital Withdrawal by Foreign Banks Declines in the First Half of 2013.
August 2, 2013
Hungary Plans New Burden for Banks
Hungarian households are still over-indebted. Prime Minister Viktor Orban aims to help them on the expense of the banking sector.
July 23, 2013
Czech Banking Industry Reduces Lending Significantly
According to a survey issued by the Czech National Bank, banks tightened their credit standards in all the monitored credit market segments in 2013 Q2.
July 22, 2013
Hypo Group Needs Even More Money
The nationalized Austrian bank needs fresh funds of more than € 700m. For the Austrian taxpayers, the banking package becomes more and more costly.
July 21, 2013
Kommunalkredit to be Liquidated
The EU Commission has approved the plans submitted by the Austrian government. The nationalized bank will need further state aids.
July 20, 2013
Moody´s Lowers Outlook of RBI
The outlook for Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International, the second-biggest lender in the CESEE region, was downgraded to “negative”.
July 20, 2013
Slovenia: Condition of Banking Sector Still Critical
In the first five months, the Slovenian Banking has recorded a net loss of € 117m. Lending goes down substantially.
July 18, 2013
Erdogan Attacks Banks
Turkey´s Prime Minister wants to strengthen his fight against the over-indebtedness of private Turkish households. According to Erdogan, banks are responsible for the unfavorable situation.
July 18, 2013
Does RBI Need a Partner?
The Austrian “Wiener Zeitung” reports that RBI (Raiffeisenbank International), the second-biggest lender in the CESEE region, has a capital requirement of more than € 5.0bn.
July 17, 2013
CNB Expects Croatian GDP to Contract Remarkably
The Croatian National Bank forecasts a GDP decline of 1.0% in 2013.
July 17, 2013
„Austrian Banking Sector Still Weakly Capitalized“
Austrian National Bank (OeNB) criticizes that the domestic banking sector did not improve the equity base sufficiently.
July 16, 2013
Good Year for Austrian Banks in 2012
The consolidated financial statements after tax and minority shares increased from € 711m to € 2.97bn.
March 20, 2013
Orban Wants to Strengthen Hungarian Banks
According to Hungary´s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the high share of foreign banks is “unhealthy”.
March 13, 2013
Belgrade Initiative to Support Serbia´s Financial System
The first meeting of the Belgrade Initiative, a host country cross-border banking forum, was held in Belgrade today.
March 8, 2013
Hungary: OTP’s Profits Lower Than Expected for Q4
OTP said it had to recover from losses from previous year. Income in the core domestic business fell 17 % to HUF 94.6 bn in 2012. Still, net profits are up 46 %.
March 8, 2013
Austria: Negative Outlook for Banks
Moody’s current analysis paints a rather bleak picture about the situation of the Austrian banking industry.
March 8, 2013
Austria: Less Money in Foreign Currency Credits
The volume of foreign currency loans has decreased further at the end of 2012.
March 7, 2013
Austrian Construction Group Alpine Rescued
For the time being, Alpine´s bankruptcy could be prevented. The creditors agreed on a partial waiver.
March 4, 2013
“I do not expect for crediting requirements to tighten”
There is no reason for crediting requirements to be tightened, Zoran Stavreski, Macedonia´s Minister of Finance says.
March 4, 2013
Romania As Risk Factor for Austria´s Public Finance
The partly nationalized Austrian banking group VBAG faces difficulties in Romania. The Austrian Ministry of Finance tries to prevent further capital injections into VBAG.
March 2, 2013
Lithuanian Banking Sector: Lending Up, Profitability Down
Over the past year, the assets of banks operating in the country and branches of foreign banks decreased.
March 2, 2013
Ukraine and EU Signed Memorandum of Understanding and Loan Agreement
Memorandum for the stability of Ukraine’s finance and economy was signed on the EU-Ukraine Summit.
February 27, 2013
Ukrainian Banking Sector Shows Small Progress
NBU, the National Bank of Ukraine stresses that deposits and lending is growing decently. The inflation remains low.
February 22, 2013
“No further tightening of corporate credit conditions”
The Hungarian National Bank has today published the results of its latest lending survey. The survey conducted in January 2013 found that credit conditions for non-financial corporations had not been tightened further.
February 22, 2013
VBAG: Major Losses in Romania
The Romanian subsidiary of Austrian VBAG suffers from non-performing loan. Last year proved to be again a difficult one for the Romanian banking system, Raiffeisen Research states.
February 21, 2013
Romania: Key Rate to Remain Unchanged
“In line with our expectations and market consensus, the central bank remained on hold at its latest monetary policy meeting (5 February)”, Raiffeisen Research reports.
February 21, 2013
Ukrainian Banking Sector Recovers
According to Raiffeisen Research, the important of foreign banks in the Ukraine is decreasing. Due a decrease in provisions, the profitability of the banking sector goes up.
February 21, 2013
Ukraine: Deal With IMF to be Cut in Summer
The visit of IMF mission to Kyiv did not bring the immediate results. Raiffeisen Research expects the negotiations to be rather prolonged.
February 20, 2013
NBU: “Banking Industry Shows an Upward Trend”
Mr. Oleksii Tkachenko, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, believes that overall 2012 was a successful year for the domestic banking industry.
February 18, 2013
Slovenian Central Bank Wants to Boost Economic Growth
Since the middle of last year, the Bank of Slovenia and the Bank Association of Slovenia have been coordinating their action to improve the business conditions for the real sector.
February 14, 2013